[flash https://ceramics.org/ceramictechtoday/wp-content/video/speed_sintering_zirconia.flv mode=1 f={image=https://ceramics.org/ceramictechtoday/wp-content/video/speed_sintering_zirconia.jpg}] Glidewell Laboratories in Newport Beach, Calif., developed a fast-firing process for zirconia that may make it possible for dental restoration crowns to be made while you wait. Credit: Glidewell Laboratories. Have you been crowned? Dentally, that is, not regally. Not long ago I was doubly crowned. It was a Big Deal…

Talk about tantalizing tidbits of technology! There is a new article available online that reports on research showing that green-density yttrium-stabilized zirconia can be sintered to full density in only a few seconds at 850°C, when subjected to a dc electrical field above a critical threshold. For a sense of what a radical difference this…